Fintech Meetup Panels: Delivering Personalization at Scale for Every Era of the Banking Customer Journey
- John San Filippo
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
By John San Filippo
Fintech Meetup was held March 10-13, 2025 in Las Vegas. Among the conference components were panel discussions that explored many pressing tech topics. Finopotamus attended several of these sessions. Panelists for this session were:
Mary Wisniewski, Editor-at-Large, Cornerstone Advisors (moderator)
Magnus Larsson, CEO, MAJORITY
Evan Leaphart, CEO, Kredit Academy
Elizabeth Osborne, COO, Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU)
Personalization in banking is hardly a new concept, but its meaning and execution are rapidly evolving. As moderator Mary Wisniewski asked at the outset of the discussion, “What are we saying about personalization? What does it mean this year?”
Understanding the Individual Journey
Modern personalization digs deeper than age or income. Magnus Larsson, whose company, MAJORITY, serves migrant communities, emphasized starting with the user’s own identity. “We ask where you’re from because there’s no data better than you actually yourself because you know who you are,” he explained. “And then we’re adding a lot of data layers on top of that.” This allows for tailored onboarding (like accepting specific national IDs) and culturally relevant features.
Elizabeth Osborne shared her credit union’s experience serving diverse communities, including a large Hispanic population and asylum seekers in Chicago. Understanding the unique challenges faced by these groups – such as needing cash access away from branches or overcoming distrust – is crucial. This empathy drives GLCU’s initiatives, from bilingual staff to multilingual AI.
Tailoring Content and Communication
Personalization extends to how information and education are delivered. Evan Leaphart focuses on financial education, stressing that effective learning requires meeting people where they are. “Learning without experience is really not going to reach the end goal,” he said. “And how you show up and provide that content shows itself in different ways” This involves adaptive learning platforms and using relevant language, cultural references, and imagery tailored to different user groups, whether young or old.
Similarly, Larsson described how MAJORITY offers customer support in specific dialects (e.g., Colombian Spanish) and integrates helpful tools like local time display for international calls and real-time currency conversion within the app. The goal is intuitive design; as Larsson noted, “If you have to explain it too much, it’s not really good enough.”
Leveraging Technology and Data Thoughtfully
Technology is the engine for personalization at scale, but it requires careful implementation.
AI Assistants: GLCU’s AI chatbot, “Olive,” provides 24/7 support and now speaks Spanish, significantly enhancing accessibility for their Hispanic members. Osborne remarked, “Olive is 24/7. She’s the most efficient worker we have at the credit union.”
Data Foundation: Effective personalization hinges on clean, well-governed data. Osborne cautioned, “The tools are only as good as your data. So if you have junk data, technology isn’t going to work.” GLCU invested significantly in its data infrastructure to enable initiatives like personalized, behavior-based transaction limits.
Compliance: AI must be treated like an employee, requiring monitoring, testing, and accountability to meet compliance standards.
Expanding Personalization and Exploring New Models
The panel agreed personalization shouldn’t stop at consumers. Tailoring experiences for small businesses based on their specific industry needs (e.g., rapid wire approvals for closing attorneys vs. accounts payable features for a dental office) presents a significant opportunity.
Subscription models also emerged as a key theme. MAJORITY uses a flat monthly fee to provide a suite of banking and cross-border services, aiming to save members money compared to traditional fee structures. While challenging to implement broadly, Osborne sees “tremendous opportunity” in customizable subscription packages that offer clear value.
The Human Element Remains Key
Ultimately, successful personalization requires listening to and involving the end-user. Leaphart emphasized, “Making sure that whoever’s the in beneficiary of the product journey is within that development process is so important.”
Looking ahead, the panelists expressed optimism about the resilience of fintechs solving real problems and the potential for open banking to empower consumers – provided institutions build trust and genuinely meet member needs. As Wisniewski concluded, the discussion provided much food for thought on navigating this complex but crucial aspect of the modern banking journey.